Brute Force
by Celtic Knot
Summary: Shepard and Thane take Grunt on his first mission. Shenanigans ensue. Cross-posted on AO3.


_This is actually a departure for me in a few ways: a little action, a dash of humor, a male Shepard, a non-romanced Thane, and surprisingly little angst. Should be fun! Also: see if you can spot the nods to_ Firefly _and_ Doctor Who!

* * *

 **Brute Force**

"He is an unknown quantity, Shepard. Are you certain this is wise?"

"No, not really." Dylan Shepard shrugged, lowering his voice to match the conspiratorial whisper. "But like it or not, he's part of this crew now. He can't remain an 'unknown quantity' for much longer. That's why we're taking him to raid a merc base instead of something mission-critical. Call it a field test."

Thane quirked an eyebrow at him. "You make him sound like a weapon."

"He's a krogan. I thought you, of all people, might see him that way, too."

"Indeed." Thane tucked his hands behind his back, studying their new squadmate from across the shuttle bay. "Still, I must admit to feeling rather like a fencer attempting to wield a sledgehammer."

Shepard laughed heartily at that, clapping Thane on the back with a gauntleted hand. "You worry too much. Come on, let's get down there." He waved the krogan over. "Time to go, Grunt!"

Grunt regarded Shepard's weapons loadout with obvious disappointment as he approached. "Where's the grenade launcher, Shepard? I was looking forward to seeing things blow up."

The human patted the arc projector on his back affectionately. "Nah, I've tangled with the Suns before; they have heavy mechs and gunships. You should see this thing tear 'em apart." He jerked his head toward the shuttle. "Let's get moving."

Securing his Claymore shotgun on his hump, Grunt showed his teeth in what might have been a grin. "Heh-heh-heh." He trotted after Shepard, leaving Thane to shake his head in mute horror as he followed.

As they took their seats and the shuttle roared toward the planet's surface, Grunt eyed Thane warily. "You forget your armor, drell?" he rumbled.

Thane stared levelly back at him as Shepard chuckled. "No. I prefer to rely on speed and stealth, the cover of darkness," he replied, a trifle sharply. "Shadows and silence are my armor. A hardsuit would only restrict my movements, and slow me down."

"Hmph," Grunt snorted, clearly unconvinced. "And if somebody turns on the lights?"

 _How simplistic._ Maintaining eye contact, Thane leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, folding his hands under his chin. "Then my face is the last thing they ever see." His words were unlikely to intimidate the young krogan, but he might at least understand the implied threat. _Do not test me._

That slightly unsettling grin spread across Grunt's face again. "Heh. You've got a quad, drell. I like you."

"That's… reassuring," Thane said drily. He shot a questioning glance at Shepard, but the human's violet eyes sparkled back at him with amusement, and a grin of his own.

 _Arashu, preserve us. He thinks the krogan is_ funny.

* * *

 _Normandy_ 's sensors had picked up some odd readings from the base, which was supposedly a Blue Suns hideout housing a sizeable weapons cache. More strangely, they had intercepted no transmissions at all. Yet there were still reports of activity on the grounds that couldn't be attributed to local fauna, so it was unlikely the installation had been abandoned.

Shepard had taken Thane on these types of recon missions many times; both were skilled infiltrators and worked well together. But their third teammate was usually Garrus or Zaeed, or perhaps Tali if they expected to encounter geth. Someone with a little patience, who was capable of subtlety—or who at least knew the meaning of the word. Grunt, though… Grunt's first words upon exiting the shuttle at the LZ had been an indignant, "Hey, where's the fight, Shepard?" He truly didn't understand the advantage of a covert approach, of intelligence-gathering.

He was going to get them all killed.

The krogan had been growing more and more restless as they approached the base, but now he stopped and stared. "What are those?" he demanded, pointing toward the far end of the compound.

Thane followed his gaze, zooming in with his Viper's scope for a better view, and what he saw gave him an ugly start. "Goddess of oceans," he swore softly. A half-dozen tall metallic spikes, viciously sharp and glinting menacingly in the sun, protruded from the ground at least five meters high. Impaled on three of them, still twitching horribly, were human bodies in blue and white armor.

He had seen more than his share of brutality; in the darkest chapter of his life, he was guilty of some, himself. But this—this spoke to the basest, most primitive urges of the sapient mind, the horror of it only compounded by the ritualistic display. Looking upon it made maintaining professional detachment… difficult.

Shepard cursed under his breath. "Dragon's teeth." He collapsed his sniper rifle, swapping it out for his Locust and gesturing for Thane to do the same. "That means husks. We're gonna get swarmed."

That certainly made the change to submachine guns a wise decision. An individual husk was an easy kill with a Viper, but they tended to attack in groups, closing quickly in large enough waves to easily overwhelm even the best of snipers. The better strategy was to put more rounds downrange rather than deadlier ones, taking out their legs to halt their advance, and doing so to as many as possible, as fast as possible.

Thane loaded his own Locust with shredder rounds for good measure.

Then his head snapped up, and he stared at Shepard as the realization hit him. "You've seen these before?"

Shepard nodded once, grimly. "On Eden Prime, and a few other geth-occupied outposts, about two years ago. They use some kind of nanotechnology to turn people into those… things." His jaw clenched. "Sometimes while they're still alive."

Thane couldn't suppress a shudder. _I had thought such devices to be legend._ Clearly, the legends had a grain of truth. But all was quiet for now, so he turned away from his squadmates for a moment, closed his eyes, and bowed his head. _"Amonkira, Lord of Hunters,"_ he murmured, _"grant that my hands be steady, my aim be true, and my feet swift. And should the worst come to pass—"_

"Here they come!" Shepard shouted, and Thane opened his eyes to see Grunt charging recklessly into the horde of mutated creatures, roaring with glee and blood rage.

 _Grant me patience._

Thane spared an incredulous glance at Shepard, but the human only shrugged and activated his tactical cloak, all but vanishing from sight.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Thane sprinted for the nearest cover and skidded to a halt to crouch behind a boulder. Husks weren't typically armed, but there was no telling what might come out that door behind them. He leaned out to scan the battlefield, his enhanced eyes noting the faint silvery shimmer that marked Shepard's position, and estimating the distance to the knot of attackers shambling toward him. They were still just too far for his SMG to be very effective, so he charged his biotics and hit the nearest few with a Throw field, killing them instantly and knocking down the ones behind them. He took advantage of the delay to vault over the rock and take a position behind a sturdy-looking crate closer to the action. Shepard's cloak dropped as the human slid in beside him.

Grunt, he had to admit, was holding his own admirably. Anything that got past his shotgun and managed to grab him was flung violently to the ground, and he was already surrounded by corpses. As Thane watched, another husk struggled to rise, only to be flattened again when Grunt's foot came crushing down on its head. The krogan actually laughed, exultant, as he barreled through the melee like a rampaging klixen.

 _Crude, but effective._

Now within SMG range, Shepard and Thane unleashed a coordinated barrage at the knees of the creatures that got past Grunt, mowing down wave after wave. A few well-placed Incineration blasts from Shepard's omni-tool ensured none of them got back up.

In minutes, it was over, the ground littered with dead husks staring emptily toward the sky. Thane studiously avoided their eyes, not wanting to imagine what these poor souls had suffered. _Kalahira, grant them peace._

Grunt stared wildly around him, panting, then locked eyes with Shepard. "That's it?" he growled. "You promised me strong enemies. These were weak. I told you what would happen if you chose weak enemies!" To Thane's dismay, though not so much to his surprise, the krogan aimed his massive shotgun point-blank at Shepard's gut.

Thane readied a Warp as Shepard pointed his SMG at Grunt's head. But his attention was seized a moment later by movement at the edge of his vision as the doors into the compound slid open once again. _"Contact left!"_ he shouted, and the three men scattered, diving for cover as a fresh wave of horrors issued forth.

Correction: Thane and Shepard dove for cover. Grunt, on the other hand, turned to face the oncoming horde. He stomped one foot and beat his fists together, _chuckling._ "Now that's more like it!" he bellowed.

A misshapen, bulbous… _thing,_ at least three times the size of the other husks, lumbered toward them. Its tiny head hung sideways from its right shoulder, and the enormous blue hump on its back pulsated hideously. Its left arm appeared to have been replaced with some kind of gun.

"Scion!" Shepard warned. "Watch out for Shockw—"

Before he could finish, the Scion's arm cannon blazed, and a series of bright blue explosions ripped toward Grunt and tossed him into the air like a ragdoll. Dazed, the krogan scrambled into cover beside Thane, loading a fresh thermal clip into his shotgun before turning to blast away at the approaching husks. Thane was surprised to find he was quite a good shot, even with such an imprecise weapon.

But the husks were many, and the Scion kept the three men pinned behind cover, unable to get more than a few shots off without getting their shields ripped away. In moments, they would be overwhelmed.

"Sure would be nice if we had some _grenades,_ Shepard!" Grunt shouted, almost playfully.

Though actually, that might not be such a bad idea. Thane nudged Grunt with his elbow to get his attention, then wordlessly handed him a small explosive. _Let the krogan have his fun._

Grunt took the grenade and was about to throw it, then stopped and turned back to Thane, looking him up and down curiously. "Where were you keeping that?" he demanded, but then held up a meaty hand. "Never mind. I don't wanna know." He armed the device, stood, and hurled it toward the Scion. _"Frag out!"_ he bellowed, following the throw with another blast of his shotgun.

 _He's going to blind himself._ "Grunt, get down!" Thane yelled, tugging uselessly at the krogan's armor. "That's a—" The grenade detonated with a deafening _crack_ and a searing flash, staggering the Scion and stunning Grunt—who'd had the misfortune to be staring directly at the flashbang as it went off.

Grunt roared, more in frustration at his temporarily impaired vision than in pain, as Thane and Shepard took advantage of the Scion's disorientation to finish off the husks. Then, as one, they switched back to sniper rifles and opened fire on the sickening creature. Thane's relatively rapid-firing Viper dealt heavy damage to the vulnerable-looking hump, and two rounds from Shepard's slower but more powerful Mantis took its head off completely. It stood frozen for a moment, then slumped to the ground in an oozing heap.

Thane was still catching his breath, his lungs burning painfully, when Grunt seized him by the collar of his jacket and hauled him off his feet. "Are you trying to get me killed, drell?" the krogan growled menacingly.

A dozen ways to escape the krogan's grasp flashed through Thane's mind. Most of them involved injuring him, though, and he was reluctant to anger him further. So… reason would have to do. "You asked for grenades. You didn't specify what kind. And then you failed to recognize it—until it was too late."

Shepard shook his head, laughing, though Thane failed to see the humor in the situation. "Put him down, Grunt. He has a point."

Grunt grumbled, but obeyed.

Thane straightened his jacket, tugging at the collar with no small amount of indignation. He followed Shepard into the compound, with Grunt bringing up the rear.

* * *

The hallways were dark and eerily quiet, the walls marked with scars of gunfire. The mercenaries had put up a fight, at least, but they hadn't stood a chance in the end. "What could the geth have wanted with this place?" Thane wondered aloud.

Shepard was silent for a moment. "I'm starting to wonder if this was the work of geth at all," he said slowly. "These scorch marks on the walls don't look like plasma weapons—more like particle beams. And I've only ever seen Scions in Collector attacks."

"You're saying those… dragon's teeth… are Reaper tech," Grunt rumbled. "Another reason to kill them all. Like I needed one."

Thane found himself agreeing with that sentiment. But the question remained: why would the _Collectors_ attack a mercenary base?

The team searched from room to room, putting down the remaining husks and salvaging what valuable or useful materials they could find. There wasn't much left. But in what looked like a mess hall, Shepard found an important clue on a datapad that had fallen heedlessly to the floor. "Looks like some kind of extortion racket. They looted an artifact from Freedom's Progress, and planned to sell it back to the Alliance."

"What sort of artifact?" asked Thane.

"It doesn't say. I'm not sure they knew, either." Shepard set the datapad down on a table. "It could be what the Collectors were after. Come on, we should keep moving."

The door at the far end of the room opened out onto a courtyard. Crates and heavy machinery were stacked haphazardly throughout the open area, and in the center stood what had to be the Freedom's Progress artifact. Perhaps a meter tall and roughly egg-shaped, what looked like several short antennae protruded from the top. It seemed almost to vibrate, though to the focused eye it sat quite still. Something about it made Thane uneasy.

"I don't like the look of that thing," Grunt mumbled.

Shepard kept his distance, too, keying his comm link to _Normandy._ "EDI, we've got an unidentified device at our current position. Can your sensors pick up anything from it?"

" _Working,"_ the AI replied. Then, _"It is heavily shielded. I can discern very little, but it is transmitting. I cannot disable it."_

"Transmitting what?" Shepard demanded. "Can you tell where the signal is going?"

" _It appears to be broadcasting in all directions. The signal is encrypted. I will attempt to analyze."_

"Make it quick, EDI—we've got company!"

Suddenly, there were Collectors _everywhere_. Drones fluttered into the air on impossibly small wings, and the biotic barriers of Guardians dotted the battlefield as Assassins opened fire with particle beams. Thane, Shepard, and Grunt exchanged a glance and a nod— _time to do what we do best—_ and split up for a three-pronged counterattack.

Thane and Shepard fell back to either side, putting some distance between themselves and the enemy so they could bring their sniper rifles into play. Headshot after headshot felled Drones with lethal precision. "Excellent shot," Thane commented to Shepard as the human picked one out of the air.

Grunt charged in to take cover closer to the action. He let loose a concussive blast that flattened three Collectors, stunning them long enough for him to bring his shotgun to bear, ending their lives messily. But his triumphant laugh was cut short by the report of Thane's Viper taking out an Assassin before it could target the krogan with its particle beam. It would have cut through his armor like butter. "Thanks," he grumbled into the comm. "I owe you one."

Shepard was making the most of the tactical advantage his cloak gave him, darting from one position to another unseen so the enemy couldn't pin down his location. Even with his improved high-frequency perception, Thane had trouble keeping track of him in the chaos of battle. He soon stopped trying, focusing instead on the Collectors still coming at them.

A heavy Warp took down a Guardian's barrier, and he took aim with his rifle. But before he could pull the trigger, the view down his scope was suddenly filled with a buzzing brownish blur as a Drone took to the air not two meters in front of him, unleashing a barrage from its assault rifle that ripped through Thane's shields and knocked him flat on his back, coughing. And bleeding—he was hit, badly. Searing pain lanced through his right shoulder as he struggled to rise, to reach for his weapons, anything.

" _Thane!"_ Shepard yelled. He swung his Mantis around to fire at the Drone, but the shot went wild in his haste.

 _Kalahira, Mistress of inscrutable depths, I ask forgiveness…_

Grunt, however, didn't miss. His shotgun blazed once, twice, three times, incendiary ammunition burning through the Drone's armor and reducing the shrieking creature to a cloud of ash. Then, somewhat to Thane's surprise, the krogan continued to stand guard over him, keeping the Collectors at bay. "Get to cover!" he roared. "I can't keep them off you forever!"

Dizzy from pain and blood loss, Thane managed to drag himself to a seated position against an overturned crate. Its contents spilled out onto the grass— _the Blue Suns weapons cache,_ he registered dimly. But a white-hot light exploded behind his eyes as his back made contact with the corrugated steel, and he bit back a cry. The Collector's bullet had torn completely through his shoulder, likely shattering his scapula on the way out. His right arm was useless. And if an artery had been opened, he had only minutes remaining.

Thane took his SMG in his left hand, gritting his teeth as his vision grayed. If he was going to die here, he would go down fighting. _Kalahira, Whose waves wear down stone and sand…_

More husks, coming around the crates. Thane fired in long, barely controlled bursts, spraying them with shredder rounds as his aim wavered. They seemed to go down in slow motion. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, equally slow.

Movement shimmered on his other side. He swung his Locust around, but an invisible hand caught his wrist and he was gently disarmed. Shepard blinked into view as his cloak dropped. "Relax, Thane. It's over." His voice was distant, muffled, as his omni-tool sprang to life in his hand. Thane hissed as medi-gel hit traumatized flesh.

But it did its job. Though the gel couldn't repair most of the damage, it at least stopped the bleeding and dulled the pain, allowing his head to clear.

Quiet. Yes, the battle was over. _Amonkira be praised._

"What should we do with this thing, Shepard?" Grunt asked, regarding the Freedom's Progress object curiously.

Shepard keyed his comm. "EDI, any progress on deciphering that transmission?"

" _Negative, Commander. The encryption code is extremely sophisticated. I may be able to crack it using brute-force methods, but such an attempt could take weeks, or months."_

Thane frowned. "Taking the artifact back to the ship seems a tactical error," he opined.

"Agreed. We destroy it." Shepard took the arc projector from its holster on his back. "EDI, record what you can; it might come in handy later. Joker, send the shuttle to our position. We've got wounded."

" _Aye, Commander,"_ came Joker's sardonic voice. _"I'll look for the big boom."_

Thane picked up one of the weapons the luckless Suns had left behind, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Shepard. Perhaps Grunt would like to do the honors."

Momentarily confused, Shepard frowned at him—then burst out laughing when he saw what Thane had found. "You know what? Sure."

Grunt grinned as he took the weapon from his teammate. "I knew I liked you." He took aim at the artifact. "You guys might want to back up."

The grenade launcher made short work of the object, leaving nothing but a smoking crater behind. And Thane had to admit, watching it blow up was… satisfying.

"Heh-heh-heh."


End file.
